Looking good

Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs) Football Club is located in North London. The club is also known as Spurs. Tottenham's home ground is White Hart Lane. The club motto is Audere est Facere (To dare is to do).

Colin Calderwood is full of praise for the young Spurs beginning to make a mark at reserve team level for the club.

Midfielders Mark Yeates and Lee Barnett made their first starts for the second string against Charlton Athletic on Tuesday evening in a team that contained seven players eligible for our under-19 side, while two of our under-17 side came off the bench.

"Mark Yeates looked bright, Lee Barnett made his first start as well and Danny Foster came on again, along with Michael Malcolm," commented Colin.

"We started with seven under-19s and three or four of them are under-18s. That's the way I think it should be.

"If they play well enough, give them their opportunity - a lot of them have done well enough for you to think they could compete at this level again."

Yeates was perhaps the central figure that stood out and regular youth team watchers will be familiar with his repertoire of tricks, along with his constant probing and cajoling.

"He's obviously got to learn when his tricks are not suitable for it, but his enthusiasm and endeavour shine through," added Colin.

"He is very attentive in the dressing room - I don't know whether he understands me, but he looks as though he's listening."

While not repeating the spectacular winner he produced against Leicester, Colin insists that striker Jamie Slabber showed against Charlton that he is greatly improving in other areas of his game.

"He's had a big development gulf. I thought he did better here than when he scored his great goal at Leicester.

"The ugly things that he does in the game, the closing down, the time to make a run and the time to drop off have improved. The things that people might not see an end product from I thought were a lot better.

"They all know the effort that's got to go in to compete in the game - after that we hope their ability will take them a step further.

"First and foremost they've got to show an appetite to get around the pitch physically and match their opponents. Once they've done that they can show that little bit extra that can make them players."

Looks out for interviews with reserve captain Dean Marney, midfielder Mark Yeates and young goalkeeper Robert Burch in this week's Spurs News Online - to subscribe to the free weekly bulletin, CLICK HERE